I saw "Big House Bunny" today with some of the previously deleated scenes left in. It was nice to see some of the gags. I laughed out loud when Sam knocked the Warden in the head after thinking he's Bugs. The line "Hot Enough For Ya Schultz?" after Sam gets toasted in the electric chair had me going too. I'm glad that Cartoon Network is showing some cartoons again. The ads do get pretty tiresome. We get enough of that on the internet don't we?

I haven't heard him, but I heard a liberal radio guy railing about how cartoons started getting awful in the 70s. He didn't know why or anything and he was asking the audience if they thought the same thing, but he cited Scooby Do as one of the terrible modern cartoons and talked about how his kids watched the classics (like Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Popeye) over and over again on video.

I wish I could find that show and link to it.

I forget the announcer's name. He has a grating high pitched voice and he hates Republicans. He's hard to listen to normally, but that night I was glued to my car radio.

I believe those Hampton drawings are Eddie's. Probably the ones that are studies of Daffy from "Great Piggy Bank Robbery" are also his. I know I had those Hampton sheets for sure from him. He drew him just like Porky, very cute.

Jorge, you shouldn't list me with those other guys-I was just starting my first job and they were way out of my league-but that's nice of you. I did do some really decent stuff for one of Eddie's shorts, a musical dance thing-I will say that(working off his brilliant board drawings helped a bit, lol).You should add Jim Gomez, who was as deft a cartoonist as anyone else including Reccardi.Yeah, that series had a very, very talented crew of artists-about 2/3rds of whom had worked with John and Ralph. Tom Minton incidentally was writing, never drawing, at WB-more's the pity. But of course he is an artist nevertheless.

The sad fact is the audience doesn't care that much about animation, they only have a casual interest, so every now again they notice how awful it had gotten while they were busy having a casual interest in, I don't know, gourmet cooking or interior design, before they move on to their casual interest in the next thing.

Also, I find it funny that Adam Corolla is railing against it since he does voices on every crap cartoon there is. In fact, the only funny thing Family Guy ever did was Norm MacDonald playing Death, and he was REPLACED by Adam Corolla. Funny thing is, Norm is a big fun of Bugs Bunny. He says it's some of the best acted and written comedy ever.

Hey, John, Jenny brings up something I've been thinking about lately. How come so few people nowadays are known for being both writers (the way someone like Conan O'Brien is) and cartoonists/drawers?

Spike Jones used to hire Tex Avery and Virgil Partch to write gags for him. But when I think of who usually writes comedy nowadays, it's usually stand up comics and improv comedians.

The only people I can think of who are known equally among comedy and animation circles are Sam Simon, Tom Minton, and Jim Reardon. Mike Judge is good enough to write his own movies but when he gets a show they pair him with a million live action comedy writers. Sometimes it works, like with a legend like Greg Daniels on King of the Hill, and sometimes it fails, like in The Goode Family.

Sam Simon created The Simpsons, he draws, he designed the early episodes, but he also created and directed a lot of live-action sitcoms. He was also known as one of the funniest writers in the comedy, among a crew of people who wrote for SNL, The Simpsons and had no affiliation with animation. The fact that Sam drew didn't take away their admiration of him or his authority. How come more cartoonists don't get into the comedy end of the business?

I predict the next big cartoonist is gonna be someone who comes from a stand-up comedy, improv, radio, background who's secretly honing his drawing skills. I mean, imagine if Conan O'Brien could draw like you, John!

No, scratch, that, I predict the next big cartoonist is gonna come a from all encompassing film, comedy AND drawing background. Someone who's done all three.